Raúl de León, Councilor for Public Works of San Bartolomé, denounced this Monday morning in an interview on the program Buenos días, Lanzarote de Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero that the Cabildo of Lanzarote does not grant the City Council 500,000 euros from the FDCAN funds destined for the realization of projects in the municipality.
The Island Council announced in a press release that it rejected the appeal that the City Council of San Bartolomé had filed where it claimed a better distribution of the FDECAN funds, justifying it by arguing that "in 2022, the municipalities of Teguise and Arrecife received 0 euros, and Tías and San Bartolomé 8 million, so in this mandate they are being distributed equitably to all the municipalities of the island."
"It is an issue that has us quite upset and what we are not going to allow in any way is for them to make fun of the residents of our municipality," says de León.
·The FDDCAN funds are funds that correspond to the municipalities and in other islands the city councils manage them directly, but in Lanzarote it was agreed years ago that the Island Council would manage them to manage them more effectively," explained the councilor.
De León pointed out that "at the end of last year, the Cabildo informed the City Council of San Bartolomé that the municipality was entitled to 612,000 euros from the FDECAN funds, but in April of this year, the island institution informed them that of that budget, 500,000 euros had already been allocated to the Molina Molina project that was financed by the FEDER funds that have nothing to do with the FDCAN."
"At first we thought it had been a mistake and we contacted the Cabildo and now what they are asking us for is a new project worth 112,000 euros and, in addition, San Bartolomé has become the last municipality in the distribution of the FDECAN," explains the secretary of the PSOE.
Raúl de León assures that this decision has been for a political issue. "Jacobo Medina, Councilor for Public Works, stated it when we reproached him in the visit to one of the works that it was an injustice and he himself recognized that it was a purely political issue and a unilateral decision of his," he declares.
In addition, according to de León, he did it "arguing that when the PSOE governed in the Cabildo, Arrecife did not receive funds, but it was because it did not have projects to link and in order not to lose that money it was dedicated to another issue."
"We have proceeded to go through the channel that corresponds, in this case to send an official letter requiring the replacement but they have not answered that no, and if we have to go to a contentious one, we will go. We have also been very angry about the fact that the Cabildo has not sat down with us to talk about this issue directly," he says.
Installation of wind turbines
Regarding the installation of the new wind turbines, two of the four that are going to be in the San Bartolomé Wind Farm have already been installed. "We are pleased because an economic drain was being carried out with those mills in the Dock, costing this island 50,000 euros per month," indicates de León.
"We are happy because it will have a positive impact on the pockets of citizens and in a matter of 10 or 15 days the four will be installed," he reveals.
Regarding the removal of the other old mills, de León says that "the mayor saw himself in the situation of making a video almost asking that they please attend to our request but not only for an aesthetic issue, but for a security issue."
The amount for uninstalling that obsolete wind farm reaches 400,000 euros and it is the Government of the Canary Islands that is responsible for removing the wind turbines.
New licenses for taxis
The City Council of San Bartolomé plans the incorporation of 12 new licenses but the initiative has been slowed down by an error in the drafting of the Transportation Law that the Government of the Canary Islands implemented. "A modification was made in the transportation law and article 3 of the first provision that says that the granting of new Uber licenses was paralyzed but it also affected taxis," he explains.
"We have already formally contacted the Canarian Government commenting that San Bartolomé had already initiated this concession of licenses before the entry into force of the new law, so it should not affect us and they have given us the reason because it is an error in the drafting of this point of the law," he declares.
"If the deadlines are met correctly, the 12 new licenses should be ready before the end of the year and the bases can be taken to the plenary so that those 12 taxi drivers can have them in operation," he says.
